Cosmic Acceleration with and without Limits

Abstract

A novel, interesting class of scalar-tensor gravity theories is those with a limit on the field motion, where the scalar field either goes to a constant acceleration or stops accelerating and goes to a constant velocity. We combine these with the ability to dynamically cancel a high energy cosmological constant, e.g. through the well tempered or self tuning approaches. One can successfully have a cosmic expansion history with a matter dominated epoch and late time acceleration despite a large cosmological constant, although the late time de Sitter limit may be unstable. Pole models, such as in a Dirac-Born-Infeld action, are of particular interest for a cosmic speed limit.